For those who are familiar with medicine here

[Davis]

So my hobby is writing andd right now I'm working on a story where someone is beaten up and I would like to make it as realistic as possible. So if you know something about medicine, I could use your help.

1. If you had massive internal bleeding, would doctors cut you open and operate you or could they stop it some other way?

2. When ambulance takes someone who's almost dying to the ER, what does doctors do first, second?

3. How long do broken ribs heal?

I don't know any doctor and I don't want to just write something how I think it might be, I need to know how does it really happen in life.

[Drew]

1) Depends where the bleeding is occuring. If it's a hemorrhagic stroke (bleeding in the brain), several things are taken into account. Read this: http://www.uptodate.com/contents/hemorrh...the-basics

2) Again, depends what's going on. The doctor will probably want to know the circumstances of the person coming in on the ambulance, vital signs, EKG results, past medical history if possible, etc, to help make a diagnosis. If they're bleeding to death, they'll probably call for a blood transfusion and medications like dopamine or dobutamine to keep blood pressure stable. If it's a heart attack, they'll give aspirin in the ambulance and probably send the person for coronary artery by-pass graft surgery (if available at the institution, otherwise they'll be transferred to the nearest one that can do it).

3) Ouch, ribs are tricky to heal. I've heard they can take several weeks to months, since they're part of your core and there isn't much that can be done, like you would when casting a broken arm or leg, other than keep pressure off it and not doing any extra physical exertion.

Not sure how helpful that was (I'm a pharmacist, not an MD), but hope it was somewhat informative. Keep us posted on your story, we'd love to read it as you write more of it!

[MisterTinkles]

1) Depends where the bleeding is occuring. If it's a hemorrhagic stroke (bleeding in the brain), several things are taken into account. Read this: http://www.uptodate.com/contents/hemorrh...the-basics

2) Again, depends what's going on. The doctor will probably want to know the circumstances of the person coming in on the ambulance, vital signs, EKG results, past medical history if possible, etc, to help make a diagnosis. If they're bleeding to death, they'll probably call for a blood transfusion and medications like dopamine or dobutamine to keep blood pressure stable. If it's a heart attack, they'll give aspirin in the ambulance and probably send the person for coronary artery by-pass graft surgery (if available at the institution, otherwise they'll be transferred to the nearest one that can do it).

3) Ouch, ribs are tricky to heal. I've heard they can take several weeks to months, since they're part of your core and there isn't much that can be done, like you would when casting a broken arm or leg, other than keep pressure off it and not doing any extra physical exertion.

Not sure how helpful that was (I'm a pharmacist, not an MD), but hope it was somewhat informative. Keep us posted on your story, we'd love to read it as you write more of it!

What he said! ^^^^

[Edward]

I'm familiar with medicine a bit.

1. I guess they would open a person up, if there was no other way to stop the bleeding. Perhaps they would sew together the damaged blood vessels.

2. The doctors would probably do everything to keep person more or less stable, like blood transfusion,etc. and they would put the patient on the life support, if necessary.

3. The ribs normally take several months to heal completely.